Asmara (Fides Service) - "Damage caused by drought since December increases daily" Bishop Menghisteab Tasfamariam of Asmara capital of Eritrea tells Fides Service in an interview with regard to the food crisis in his country.
How many people are without food and what provoked this crisis?
In Eritrea at least 1.4 million people face starvation unless concrete help arrives. By the end of 2003 the figure is expected to rise to 2.5 million. Most of the people affected are small children, pregnant mothers and the elderly. This year we will need at least 601 tonnes of cereals to meet the emergency. Our government does what it can to distribute a little flour in drought stricken areas: Keren, Assab and Barentu: but this is only a drop in the ocean. The international community must intervene immediately to compensate for the damage caused by severe drought in 2002.
What is the Church doing to help the people?
I have already made various appeals to the international community and some help is arriving. For example the Italian diocese of Bergamo collected US$ 20,000 used to purchase powdered milk which Caritas Eritrea is now distributing. We are very grateful to our brothers and sisters in Italy and we hope others will follow their example because the needs are great. What we need most is milk and other food with high vitamin and protein content. Every day hundreds of thousands come to our mission centres asking for food but it is simply impossible to feed them all.
What steps must be taken to avoid similar catastrophes in the future?
When the crisis broke we, the local Church, made a list of priorities. The first was, that the emergency must be faced with distribution of food and medicine. The second was a long term agriculture plan. Most of Eritrea is arid land, this means wells and water holes are indispensable. Besides water, our subsistence farmers also need seed if there is to be a new harvest. With this in mind I would stress the importance of short term and long term assistance to avoid this sort of tragedy in the future. LM (Fides Service 14/2/2003 EM lines 28 Words: 346)